Title: Summer Storms, Part 5 of 6

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Still not mine.

Author's Notes: Apologies, but this one was so hard. Fic was so much easier when I didn't know what perspective was. The next chapter should be faster, and should wrap things up, but for now we're not out of the woods yet (hee hee).

Chapter Five: Uncovered

"Jake, please," Hamilton begged.

His gaze was so plaintive that Jake had to look away. Having found shelter had put some of the fight back in her, and she wasn't ready to give up her charade, especially since now more than ever she couldn't bear the thought of losing Hamilton.

She looked at him steadily, or as steadily as she could with the room tilting precariously before her eyes. "If I do this, we lose everything, right now."

"Jake, if we get found out..." Hamilton whispered, casting a glance over his shoulder at Will and Scout. "If we can't go to school together anymore, it's not the end of the world. We'll get through that. But if you don't get warm... Jake..."

Bella crouched next to them and whispered, "Let me help you. I can distract the guys." Hamilton shot her a suspicious glance, and she explained: "I know. Jake told me."

Hamilton looked back and forth between the two girls. "When? Why?"

Jake dropped her head, guilty for not having told him. "It's a long story." She looked up again and nodded at Bella. "OK."

Bella stood up and announced, "Alright, guys, I'm gonna take my clothes off, but I want you all to turn around and face the wall."

Scout rolled his eyes. "Bella, come on. This really isn't the time for modesty."

"Please, guys."

Scout sighed. Bella took the other blanket from Will, and the guys both obediently moved toward the windows and faced outside. Hamilton and Jake turned toward the wall as well, and Bella stood watch for them to make sure Scout and Will kept their backs turned.

This was as much privacy as they were going to get, and it wasn't going to last long. Hamilton whispered, "OK. Now!" Jake lifted her arms, and he quickly but gently pulled her sweatshirt up over her head, then the T-shirt, and threw them aside. He reached behind her back to unhook her bra.

"No, don't," she protested.

"Why not?"

"If you put the bra with the other clothes, they'll see it. Dead giveaway." This was the best excuse she could come up with, not wanting to tell Hamilton that this just wasn't the way she imagined her first time being naked with him.

Hamilton didn't like her choice of words, but he opted not to argue with her. "Fine. Unzip," he commanded. She obediently undid her fly and leaned back on her elbows so he could pull off her jeans. They were baggy on her and slid off easily, but Hamilton was careful to go gently over her bandaged foot. He discarded the wet jeans and then took one corner of the blanket and rubbed it over her head, trying to dry her hair.

"Can we turn around yet?" Scout asked.

"Not yet," Bella answered. She stood in her bra and panties, vigorously rubbing her arms and legs with her blanket. She turned to glance at Jake and Hamilton.

Jake pulled her knees up under her chin and sat in a little ball as Hamilton tightly wrapped the blanket around her. "Better?"

"Yeah," she replied. She was silent for a moment, gazing at him, then added, "Thank you."

He smiled for what felt like the first time in days. "Don't mention it."

"What about you?" Jake asked, knowing that he was cold, too.

Hamilton stood up, pulled off his wet shirt and tossed it, then did the same with his sweatpants.

Jake wasn't satisfied. "Don't you want to dry off?"

Hamilton called over his shoulder, "Bella, are there any more blankets?"

"No. Just this one, and it's pretty wet already."

Hamilton smiled at Jake again. "I'll be OK." But as he stood before her in his underwear, the wind whipped through the windows and over his near-naked body, and he shivered.

Bella, modestly covered by her blanket, saw that Jake was safely wrapped up as well. "OK, guys, you can turn around."

Will breathed a sigh of relief and walked over to the storage closet as Scout turned back to Bella with what looked like disappointment on his face. "Are you warming up?" he asked her.

"Yeah, Scout. You want the blanket back?"

He hesitated. "No, you keep it."

"Jake, how are you doing?" Bella asked.

"Better. The pink spots on the wall have stopped moving around."

Hamilton raised his eyebrows. "You're seeing spots?"

"Just little ones."

"Hey, Ham," Will called from the supply closet. "Catch!" He turned to them and tossed a white plastic box to Hamilton. It was a first aid kit.

"Thank God," Hamilton sighed. He opened it up and pulled out bandages and a small bottle of rubbing alcohol. Turning to Jake he said, "OK, let's see that foot again."

Jake's foot recoiled back under the blanket as she laid eyes on the alcohol. "No way," she said. "You're not putting that on me."

"I want to clean it so it doesn't get infected."

"Dude, I'm in enough pain, thank you."

"Jake, come on."

"Hamilton..." she murmured in response, still quivering. "I just want to get warm."

She stared up at him with eyes more needy than Hamilton had ever seen. All her bravado was gone, and she let him see her naked vulnerability. He knew that all she wanted was for him to get inside that blanket with her and warm her with his body. And he wanted to hold her. To comfort her.

He turned to look at Scout and Will, who were watching them.

"You know, you guys feel free to... whatever," Scout offered. "We're cool. Really."

Will concurred. "Totally. Totally cool."

Hamilton contemplated this while he finished wrapping Jake's foot with a gauze bandage. So many times during that trek up the hill he'd wanted to call off the whole charade, to let her stop pretending. But he'd reminded himself that unless her identity remained a secret, he would lose her. Now they'd made it this far, and he had a choice. He could let them know that she was a girl, or he could let them make the obvious assumptions about his sexuality. Either way, he was getting inside that blanket with her.

He looked at Jake. Her beautiful dark eyes searched his face. He turned and looked back at Scout and Will.

And he realized something. He'd never really cared what they thought.

Hamilton nodded to Jake, and she opened up the blanket. He sat down beside her, and her head fell against his bare chest as he wrapped his arms around her. He pulled her legs toward him and over his own, turning her sideways so that she was practically in his lap but keeping the blanket wrapped around them. He quickly rubbed his hands together to warm them up before touching her. And then he put his hands on her almost-naked body and rubbed her arms, her back, her legs, every inch of her bare skin, trying to warm her, trying to get her blood circulating, trying to keep her awake and alert.

Jake moaned contentedly and slid a hand up to his chest, and Hamilton had to remind himself that this was not a time to get aroused. He grabbed her fingers and rubbed those too, squeezing each one and then finally intertwining them with his own.

Across the room, Scout raised his eyebrows at Will and said, "Well, at least somebody's getting warm."

"OK, come on guys," said Bella, taking the hint. She lifted up her arms to invite them into her blanket.

Scout smiled. "So we can't look, but we can snuggle?"

"I can take back this offer at any moment," she warned him.

Scout and Will rushed over to her, one on either side, and the three of them sat down near the fireplace with the blanket stretched around them. But no sooner had they settled down than Will threw back the blanket, jumped up and went over to the hearth. He picked up a book of matches.

"Wait a minute --" he said. "If there's a fireplace, and matches, shouldn't there be wood in here?" He knelt down next to the steel box by the fireplace and opened it. "There it is."

"Thank God," Hamilton said. He squeezed Jake in celebration and whispered, "Now we'll get warm."

"I'm already warm," she whispered back, her head pillowed against his chest.

Their progress through the woods was slow and cumbersome, what with carrying umbrellas and flashlights and, for Finn, also a pack on his back with blankets and hand warmers and a first aid kit. He finally closed his umbrella and decided that the hood of his rain jacket would do for now. He and Kate had split off from the main search party and now trekked through thick trees toward the next rendezvous point.

At the top of his voice, Finn called out into the relentless storm, "Will...? Scout...?"

"Hamilton...?" called Kate.

"Jake...?" Finn continued.

There was no response but the incessantly thudding deluge of rain and the moan of the wind.

It wasn't exactly a silence, but it was still awkward as they hiked up the hill directing no words at each other. But out of the corner of his eye, Finn could see Kate looking at him, and then her lips moved with words drowned by the rain.

"What?" he asked loudly. "I can't hear you!"

"I'm sorry I snapped at you!" she yelled back at him, the volume of her voice making it hard to recognize as an apology.

"It's OK," he replied simply.

They walked a little farther and again called out the boys' names, but again there was no response. Finn looked at his compass and got his bearings. If they kept heading north, their current path would take them back to the highway that led to the school. Of course, the boys didn't have a compass, and Finn could see how easy it would be to wander off course in these dense woods, even if the rain weren't making it so hard to see.

Trying to be optimistic, Kate stepped closer to Finn so that he could hear her without her yelling. "Maybe they're not lost. Maybe they found shelter, and they're just waiting out the storm."

"That's probably it," Finn replied.

"If only one of them had a phone."

Finn was not about to explain all over again why the principles of rowing dictated that the boys not take anything onto the boat with them. "Even if they did," he replied, "there's probably no reception out here."

Kate checked the bars on her cell phone. Finn was right.

But Finn had a radio that the sheriff's deputy, Ricky, had given him, and just then it crackled to life. "Finn, do you copy?"

Finn lifted the radio to his mouth and tried to shield it from the rain as he replied, "Ricky, this is Finn."

"What's your twenty?" the deputy's voice squawked.

"We're about a half-mile from the highway, going due north."

There was a silence, and then: "Finn, go to a private channel."

Kate turned and stared at him with wide eyes. "No!" she cried. "I want to know what's going on."

Finn shook his head at her and flipped a switch on the radio, so that now Ricky's voice would be heard by him alone. He held the radio up to his ear, knowing that what he was about to hear couldn't possibly be good. "Go ahead."

"When you picked up those boys on the riverbank, they said nobody was hurt in the accident?"

"That's correct. Why?"

"Something must've happened..." The young deputy's voice shook slightly as he tried to put the words together. "We're up here on the main trail, and... There's blood up here, Finn. So much blood the rain couldn't even wash it away. Jesus, it's a lot of blood."

Trying to swallow against the huge lump that had formed in his throat, Finn looked at Kate.

"What?" she begged. "What is it?"

Warmth.

Will managed to get a pretty good fire going, and they were finally getting warm. Hamilton and Jake, still wrapped together, moved over in front of the fireplace to share in the delicious heat. Hamilton was relieved that Jake's skin no longer felt like melting ice, but as she lay nestled in his arms, he realized that they had a new problem. The cold had kept her awake, but now in the cozy heat of the fire she kept dozing off. He didn't know if it was from loss of blood, shock, or just exhaustion, but Hamilton knew the only way to be sure she was OK was to keep her awake.

Bella told him the same thing. "Don't let him go to sleep, Hamilton. I'm not sure why, but I know you have to keep him awake."

Hamilton slapped Jake gently on her cheeks. "Come on, Jake. Stay awake."

"I don't want to," she groaned, squeezing her eyes shut. "It hurts too much."

"It's hurting more?"

"I think my foot got numb from the cold, but now that it's getting warm..."

Hamilton sighed. They couldn't win. He kissed the top of her head as he whispered, "I'm sorry, baby."

He looked up and caught Will staring at them. Will looked away quickly, and Hamilton turned his gaze back down to Jake. Her hair had dried, and it fell in soft wisps around her temples and curled over her forehead. She'd never looked more feminine, even when she'd been all girled up for their date, and he decided that if Will hadn't figured it out by now, he probably never would. But what Will had or hadn't figured out seemed so irrelevant now, as Hamilton held onto his girlfriend and she held on for dear life.

Jake bit her bottom lip and curled tighter into Hamilton's embrace, burying her face in the crook of his arm as if to hide the pain from him. He felt tears sting his eyes, but he fought them down and tried to keep her awake with conversation.

"So," he said. "I wonder if we'll get to skip practice tomorrow."

Jake opened her eyes and looked up at him incredulously. "Oh, my God. That was so lame, Hamilton."

"Hey, I'm trying here. What do you want to talk about?"

She closed her eyes again. "I'm sorry... I can't." She looked so tired. Bluish circles had formed under her eyes, and Hamilton didn't know why. He didn't want to think about it. He couldn't think about it. He couldn't even contemplate that this love he had just found, this beautiful, intelligent, complex person with the most intoxicating laugh he'd ever heard, that she could be slipping away before his very eyes, in his very arms... How did they get here? His mind wandered back over the events of the morning. One stupid decision. Go into the woods. Up the hill. Off the path. All the signs had warned them to turn back. Even Jake had been hesitant, and Jake was never scared of anything. But she'd gone into those woods because she trusted him. And this was where her trust got her.

And as if that didn't make Hamilton feel horrible enough, he also knew that her foot had ended up in that trap because she had pushed him out of the way. Everything that was happening to her should be happening to him.

Trying to shake the dark thoughts out of his head, Hamilton glanced over at the other huddle, and he noticed that Will was now staring at Jake's exposed leg, as if examining it. Hamilton tried to adjust the blanket and cover her up, but he inadvertently pulled it off her shoulder, revealing her bra strap.

"Holy shit..." Will uttered, a little louder than he had intended. Mouth agape, he looked from Jake to Hamilton.

Scout turned his gaze away from the fire that had captivated him and looked over at Jake and Hamilton, but before he could register anything, the fire tower's steel door pushed open behind them, scraping across the cement floor and sending a gust of wind across the room.

They all turned to see someone standing in the doorway.

END OF PART FIVE